Members

NOAHE members come from a range of different backgrounds. From government, academia, private and non-profit sectors, health economics is applied across platforms to realize greater efficiencies, effectiveness, quality and value in the utilization of limited health care resources.

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Dr. Ilke Akpinar

Dr. Ilke Akpinar

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions

Health Economist, Institute of Health Economics

Education and Training

Dr. Akpinar has her Doctor of Medicine from the University of Ankara, completed pediatric surgery residency at the University of Akdeniz. She has a Master of Science in Health Policy Research, specializing in Health Economics from School of Public Health, University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Akpinar has over 5 years of applied research experience in Canada with more than 10 years of clinical experience as a pediatric surgeon in Turkey. Her research interests include health outcomes and health services research, with a particular interest in the cost of clinical trials for medical devices and pharmaceuticals, economic evaluations for chronic diseases and screening programs.

Mr. Philip Akude

Mr. Philip Akude

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Economist, Health Economics and Funding Branch, Alberta Health

Research Interests and Expertise

Philip's research interests are in development and health economics. One of his current research projects specifically focuses on how exogenous shocks affect child health and other child outcomes in geographical areas where certain commodities are produced. Over the years, he has acquired a good knowledge and experience in cost-effectiveness modeling in healthcare. Currently, he is working on developing a cost effective framework for precision medicine technologies.

Ms. Selina Allu

Ms. Selina Allu

Current Position and Professional Functions

Ms. Allu is a Knowledge Translation Broker working for University of Calgary, Division of Nephrology and Can-SOLVE CKD

Education and Training

MA in Human/Health Geography from the University of Calgary; 10+ years working in chronic disease (hypertension, kidney disease, diabetes); 10+ years in knowledge translation.

Research Interests and Expertise

Three words that describe what Selina does are: “creator, communicator, connector.” Her interests include application of knowledge translation to move evidence into practice as well as impactful and meaningful patient engagement, stakeholder relationships, creative communication and effective presentations, using social media for impact and influence in health research, and health care intervention design.

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Dr. Fatima Al Sayah

Dr. Fatima Al Sayah

Current Position and Professional Functions

Research Manager, Alberta PROMs and EQ-5D Research and Support Unit (APERSU), School of Public Health, University of Alberta

Education and Training

Fatima holds a PhD in Public Health from the University of Alberta, and an MSc in Community Health Nursing from the American University of Beirut

Research Interests and Expertise

Fatima has over 12 years of epidemiological and clinical research experience. Her research focuses on measurement of health outcomes including clinical and patient-reported outcomes (PROs), preferences measurement, and psychometrics. She serves as a consultant methodologist on several health outcome measurement projects in Canada and internationally.

Dr. Susan Armijo-Olivo

Dr. Susan Armijo-Olivo

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions

Dr. Armijo-Olivo is a Principal Research Lead at the Institute of Health Economics and an adjunct professor in the faculties of Rehabilitation Medicine and Medicine and Dentistry, University of Alberta

Education and Training

Dr. Susan Armijo-Olivo has a Bsc in Physical therapy (PT) from the Pontifical University Catholic of Chile, a MSc in Physical Therapy, a PhD in Rehabilitation Sciences from the University of Alberta, and a post-doc in clinical epidemiology, knowledge synthesis, and evidence based practice.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Armijo-Olivo is interested in optimize and validate methods used to synthesize research, and to conduct high quality research particularly in the area of allied health professions. Her primary research interest is musculoskeletal disorders. She has expertise in knowledge synthesis, clinical epidemiology, research methodology, meta-epidemiological studies, and clinical research.

Ms. Jasmine Brown

Ms. Jasmine Brown

Current Position and Professional Functions

Director of Communications, Institute of Health EconomicsMs. Brown is the Director of Communications at the Institute of Health Economics.

Education and Training

She received her Masters of Public Policy from the University of Calgary. She is currently studying Psychiatry as a graduate student at the University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

Jasmine’s primary research interest is in mental health and addictions. Prior to joining the IHE, she served as Principal Secretary and Policy Advisor to the late Honourable James M. Flaherty, former Federal Finance Minister, and advised him in his creation of two federal budgets. Her portfolio items included such files as natural resources, environment, industry, sales tax, tariffs, international trade and finance, and regional development. She also acted as Special Assistant to the Right Honourable Stephen Harper, Prime Minister of Canada. Furthermore, Jasmine has a history of political consulting and has acted as a political commentator on television.

He has produced and collaborated on a wide range of evidence-based products in various clinical areas and across a spectrum of interventions (e.g. pharmaceuticals, medical devices, programs, services and policy).

Dr. Fiona Clement

Dr. Fiona Clement

Current Position and Professional Functions

Associate Professor, University of Calgary Dr. Clement is an Associate Professor, and Director of the Health Technology Assessment Unit within the O’Brien Institute of Public Health at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

She received a PhD in Community Health Services specializing in Health Services Research and Health Economics from the University of Calgary, and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in Health Economics from Newcastle University.

Research Interests and Expertise

Research interests include drug and non-drug technology reimbursement and cost containment policy, evidence in decision-making, and evidence in health policy development. She leads a policy responsive research unit that completes evidence synthesis, economic evaluations, health technology assessments and reassessments in response to decision-makers’ needs. In 2014, she was selected as the Canadian Harkness fellow; a unique opportunity to study US healthcare policy.

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Dr. Stephen Congly

Dr. Stephen Congly

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Clinical Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, University of Calgary Dr. Stephen Congly is a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Calgary in the Department of Medicine. His clinical practice includes gastroenterology as well as general and transplant hepatology.

Education and Training

Dr. Congly has his Doctor of Medicine from the University of Alberta, completed internal medicine and gastroenterology training at the University of Calgary and subsequently a fellowship in Hepatology at the University of Calgary and in Transplant Hepatology at Mayo Clinic, Rochester MN. He has a Master’s of Science in Health Economics, Policy and Management from the London School of Economics.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Congly’s current research interests include assessing resource utilization in liver and gastrointestinal diseases, health technology assessment in these areas as well as understanding the variability with regards to access to care and medications and strategies to reduce these barriers.

Ms. Tara Cowling

Ms. Tara Cowling

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions

Director and Managing Principal of Medlior Health Outcomes Research Ltd.

Education and Training

Tara obtained her MSc from McMaster University in the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Neuroscience and Psychiatry. Tara gained her BA and MA in Physiological Sciences from Balliol College at The University of Oxford.

Research Interests and Expertise

Tara’s primary research interests are in evidence generation to inform health policy decision-making. Areas of expertise include systematic reviews, environmental scans, real world evidence and medical writing. Tara founded Medlior in 2008 with a priority for providing value and insight for health outcomes research projects through robust methodology. Tara has over 16 years of experience in roles within public sector and industry organizations. Prior roles include five years with Alberta Health Services as the Lead of Clinical Data Services and five years in HTA/Market Access roles for AstraZeneca UK, Wyeth UK and IMS Health UK. In addition, Tara gained experience as a Research Fellow for Clinical Guidelines in Chronic Conditions at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in London, UK.

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Dr. Trafford Crump

Dr. Trafford Crump

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Trafford Crump is an Assistant Professor at the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Dr. Crump has a BA in Economics from Bishop's University, Lennoxville, Quebec, a MPA in Health Economics & Policy from New York University, New York, New York, and a Ph.D. in Evaluative Clinical Sciences from Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire.

Research Interests and Expertise

I am a health services researcher with an interest in improving the shared making between patients and their health care providers for “preference-sensitive” decisions. This can be achieved by providing timely and personalized information to both parties based on the patient’s unique characteristics and circumstances, the healthcare provider’s outcomes with previous patients, and the inherent risks underling the respective options available to them. To conduct this work, I draw on a rich experience with developing valid, reliable, and feasible methods for collecting primary data from patients, linking these with clinical data collected from health care providers, and estimating prediction models based on these data.

My recent research has focused on preference-sensitive decisions in urology, including treatment decisions for prostate cancer, pelvic organ prolapse, and overactive bladder. This work involves collecting patient-centered outcomes, including measures of health status, patient experience, and patient satisfaction, and linking these to clinical registry data collected as part of service delivery programs.

Dr. Gillian Currie

Dr. Gillian Currie

Current Position and Professional Functions

Associate Professor, Departments of Paediatrics and Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary, and Member: Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute O’Brien Institute of Public HealthDr. Gillian Currie is a health economist specializing in child health at the University of Calgary. Her PhD in Economics from Yale University was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. Gillian is the Section Lead for the Research Methods Team – an academic section within the Department of Paediatrics based at the Alberta Children’s Hospital. Dr. Currie is a member of the Healthy Outcomes theme group within the Alberta Children’s Hospital Research Institute for Child and Maternal Health, and co-organizes bi-weekly Healthy Outcome Theme Rounds. She is also the co-lead of the Health Economics and Health Technology Assessment research group in the O’Brien Institute of Public Health.

Dr. Currie has made significant educational contributions including teaching graduate courses, supervising graduate students at the PhD and MSc levels, serving on the Graduate Education Committee in the Department of Community Health Sciences, and teaching in the Department of Paediatrics’ Resident Research Course.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Currie’s research interests are in the economic evaluation of interventions and treatments that impact the health of children, and particularly in methods to understand how we value the benefits of those interventions via stated preference elicitation methods.

Ms. Catalina Cuzzani

Ms. Catalina Cuzzani

Student/trainee

Current Positions and Professional Functions:

Research Assistant to Dr. Frank AtkinsCatalina leads research and assists in writing economic papers for the Frontier Centre of Public Policy. She also analyses, edits and completes economic data reports for various legal proceedings.

Teaching Assistant, MicroeconomicsCatalina is a Teaching Assistant at the University of Calgary and leads first year microeconomics tutorials. Topics include: trade, economic efficiency, consumer choice and behavioural economics, environmental policy, competition and antitrust policy.

Education and Training

Catalina Cuzzani holds an Honours B.A. in Economics from the University of Calgary and has over nine years of corporate experience working in financial services, legal and compliance, coupled with relevant work experience in economic research. Over the last three years she has been working for Economist Dr. Frank Atkins, assisting in research and writing peer-reviewed publications for the Frontier Centre of Public Policy.

Research Interests and Expertise

Catalina's prior work focused on public policy, laws, regulations, and externalities, her latest project analyses market power mitigation designs in electricity and natural gas markets across selected U.S. jurisdictions.

Catalina's research interests include innovation funding and government performance. Concerned by her prior research examining the lack of innovation funding in Canada she is driven to help shape policy around public funding in innovation.

Research Interests and Expertise

Mr. Neel Dhingani

Mr. Neel Dhingani

Student/trainee

Education and Training

Neel received his Masters degree from the University of Toronto.

Research Interests and Expertise

Neel's research interest is to contribute to improve the health economics capacity in Alberta in the growing field of precision medicine. Precision medicine will represent a major health market for next generation sequencing, analytics, biochemical functional studies and its translational application from bench to bedside care. He specifically has expertise in the analytics and biochemical functional studies. Alberta has a significant advantage over other provinces in becoming a leader in this field of healthcare based on the education infrastructure, highly skilled labor force, and the resources. Precision medicine can help reduce the healthcare costs by making the correct diagnosis and create a personalized therapy plan for patients.

Ms. Taylor Grady

Ms. Taylor Grady

Current Position and Professional Functions

Taylor Grady is currently pursuing a MA in Economics at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Taylor has completed a Bachelor of Arts in Economics with a specialization in Aquatic Resources at St. Francis Xavier University in Nova Scotia.

Research Interest and Expertise

Taylor is passionate about the environmental issues and health issues in Canada. Taylor is particularly interested in the water crisis among Indigenous Communities in Canada and studied its effects on health in her undergraduate thesis.

Ms. Luiza Grazziotin

Ms. Luiza Grazziotin

Current Position and Professional Functions

Health Economics PhD Student, University of CalgaryLuiza Grazziotin is currently pursuing a PhD in Community Health Sciences, specialization in Health Economics, at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Ms. Grazziotin earned a M.Sc. in Cardiovascular Sciences and a B.Sc. in Pharmacy from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. Ms. Grazziotin developed a foundational expertise in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) during her Master’s degree and completing a one-year HTA specialization course concurrently. Ms. Grazziotin also worked as a Research Associate at a hospital-based HTA unit, in which she gained practical experience in health services research by developing, coordinating and conducting HTA projects, systematic reviews and observational studies.

Research Interests and Expertise

Ms. Grazziotin`s research interests heath policy and health economics, with particular interest in cost-effectiveness modeling in arthritis and cancer care.

Current Position and Professional Functions

Education and Training

MSc, Health Services Research, University of Toronto

BSc, Health Studies, University of Waterloo

Research Interests and Expertise

Her research interests are in health technology assessment, with particular focus upon drug funding policy, application of real-world evidence, stakeholder engagement, and value/prioritization frameworks.

Dr. Aidan Hollis

Dr. Aidan Hollis

Current Position and Professional Functions

Professor, University of CalgaryDr. Aidan Hollis is a Professor of Economics at the University of Calgary, and President and a Director of Incentives for Global Health.

Education and Training

He received a PhD in Economics from the University of Toronto.

Research Interests and Expertise

Research interests include industrial organization, particularly focused on competition and innovation issues in pharmaceutical markets. He is President and a Director of Incentives for Global Health, a non-profit whose chief objective is the promotion and development of the Health Impact Fund. Prof. Hollis has also published on electricity market restructuring, international aspects of competition policy, and the economics of a historical microcredit institution. For the academic year 2003-4 he was appointed TD MacDonald Chair of Industrial Economics at the Competition Bureau, Industry Canada. Key areas of interest are the Health Impact Fund, and rewards for pharmaceutical innovation; Pricing Antibiotics for Non-Human Use; and Generic drug pricing.

Dr. Gareth Hopkin

Dr. Gareth Hopkin

Current Position and Professional Functions

Dr. Gareth Hopkin is a Research Fellow at the Institute of Health Economics.

Education and Training

He obtained his Ph.D. in Health Services Research at King’s College London and also holds a BSc. (Hons) Applied Psychology from Cardiff University.

Research Interests and Expertise

Prior joining the Institute of Health Economics, Gareth was a Fellow in Health Policy at the London School of Economics where he taught on executive and full time MSc courses (including economic evaluation, research design for health policy, and measuring health system performance) alongside conducting health services research and economic evaluations in several health areas. He has particular interests in the impact and cost effectiveness of health policies and complex interventions and the health of disadvantaged and underserved populations.

Mr. Nicolas Iragorri

Mr. Nicolas Iragorri

Current Position and Professional Functions

Nicolas Iragorri is a MSc student specializing in Health Economics in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Mr. Iragorri completed a BA in Economics at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, Colombia. During his undergraduate studies, he worked as a research assistant in the Department of Biostatistics and Clinical Epidemiology, where he helped develop national clinical guidelines for the care and treatment of diabetes. He has focused on Health Economics ever since.

Research Interests and Expertise

Mr. Iragorri is currently focusing on screening and diagnostics from a health economics perspective. His ongoing thesis project focuses on rheumatic disease. He is interested in developing a project focused on vulnerable populations and the appropriate use of economic tools to help improve health and sanitary conditions.

Dr. Brian R. Jackson

Dr. Brian R. Jackson

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions

Policy Manager, Alberta Health Addictions & Mental Health.

Education and Training

He recieved his Doctorate degree in Addictive disorders from the Breining institute in the USA, his MSc. in Applied Psychology, Drug Use, & Addictions from Liverpool John Moores University, UK, and his RN (mental health) designation from the University of Chester, UK.

Research Interests and Expertise

Mr. Jackson's main areas of interest are in mental health & addictions, as well as the education of healthcare professionals.

Dr. Philip Jacobs

Dr. Philip Jacobs

Current Position and Professional Functions

Director of Research Collaborations, Institute of Health EconomicsDr. Jacobs is a Professor of Health Economics in the faculty of Medicine at the University of Alberta, and the Institute of Health Economics’ Director of Research Collaborations.

Education and Training

He received a DPhil in Economics from the University of York, UK.

Research Interests and Expertise

His research interests encompass costing health care services, economic evaluation analysis and health care financing issues. Dr. Jacobs is responsible for the production of the IHE In Your Pocket series of health economic statistics booklets, and is currently working on economic studies in infectious diseases and mental health.

Dr. Egon Jonsson

Dr. Egon Jonsson

Current Position and Professional Functions

Professor of Health EconomicsEgon Jonsson is a Professor of Health Economics; adjunct at the Universities of Alberta and Calgary.

Education and Training

Dr. Jonsson trained in his native Sweden at the Stockholm School of Economics before serving as a research associate at the Harvard School of Public Health. He is an elected member of the Institute of Medicine of the US National Academy of Sciences, and former Editor of the International Journal of Technology Assessment in Health Care, Cambridge University Press.

Research Interests and Expertise

For 15 years Professor Jonsson was Executive Director and CEO of the Swedish Agency on Health Technology Assessment (SBU). He later worked for the World Health Organization (WHO) to establish its Health Evidence Network, which is a service for the health ministries of WHO-member states, with a focus on evidence in the field of health policy and practice. Later he was a Health Policy Advisor at the Ministry of Health in Hanoi, Vietnam. His main fields of research are in health economics and health technology assessment.

Dr. Don Juzwishin

Dr. Don Juzwishin

Current Position and Professional Functions

Director of Health Technology Assessment and Innovation, Alberta Health ServicesDon is the Director of Health Technology Assessment and Innovation at Alberta Health Services (AHS). He is an adjunct professor at the Universities of Alberta, Calgary and Victoria. Don also serves as treasurer on the Board of Directors of Health Technology Assessment International. He is co-investigator of the Genome Canada PACEOMICS project and AGE-WELL Canada’s technology and aging network.

Education and Training

He received his MHSA, and his PhD in Educational Policy Studies, Sociology of Education, from the University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

Research interests include healthcare evidence-based policy implementation, leading AHS to the forefront in the use of evidence to inform health care decisions and policy with a particular emphasis on innovating and transforming the Alberta health care system to achieve improved patient outcomes. He has over one hundred publications to his credit and speaks extensively on contemporary issues in health care transformation. He is a member of the Alberta Advisory Committee on Health Technologies that assists the government in the review of health technologies and services. Dr. Juzwishin was CEO of the Health Council of Canada reporting on the progress of health care reform in Canada. Before this, he was the Director of HTA at the Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research where he led a team of researchers responding to HTA requests from government, health authorities and provider organizations. Don has extensive experience in leadership with health authorities as well as government, private sector, and universities.

Ms. Kai-Erh Kao

Ms. Kai-Erh Kao

Current Position and Professional Functions

MSc Student at the School of Public Health, University of Alberta

Kai is currently an MSc student in Health Policy Research and focuses on health economics.

Education and Training

Kai completed her Bachelor of Science degree in Biochemical Science and Technology at National Taiwan University with additional coursework from health science, economics and business. She also worked as a marketing intern at a biotech company and administrative assistant at Eli Lilly and Company. These experience led her to pursue a career in health economics, pricing, and market access.

Research Interests and Expertise

Her research interests include health policy, economic evaluations, and cost-effectiveness analysis. She is currently working on a project regarding modelling different strategies for a sugar tax on unhealthy foods.

Ms. Shahreen Khair

Ms. Shahreen Khair

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

Graduate Student and Research Assistant, Department of Economics, University of CalgaryShahreen is a Graduate Student specializing in Health Economics and working as a Research Assistant at the Department of Economics, University of Calgary. She is developing a Graduate Student Database for future student admission process, in collaboration with the Department of Economics.

Education and Training

She is currently pursuing a Master’s degree in Economics at the University of Calgary, Canada. Shahreen received a Bachelor of Social Science in Economics from BRAC University, Bangladesh. She has 5 years of experience working in development organizations on issues encompassing health, climate change, governance and policy.

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Mr. Dee-Jay King

Mr. Dee-Jay King

Current Position and Professional Functions

Executive Director, Alberta HealthExecutive Director, Health Economics and Funding at Government of Alberta

Education and Training

He received a BSc. in Mathematics and Economics, and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

For the past few years Dee-Jay has led the Health Economics and Funding Branch within Alberta Health. This group focuses on bringing evidence to operational and policy decisions for the betterment of healthcare in Alberta. In prior government leadership roles, Dee-Jay has also been involved with the business intelligence management, broad based analytics, and pharmaceutical analytics. Dee-Jay continues to demonstrate passion for bringing evidence to healthcare in Alberta. Dee-Jay has a Master in Business Administration from the University of Alberta as well as a Bachelor of Science with a Mathematics/Economics double major from the University of Alberta.

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Ms. Erin Kirwin

Ms. Erin Kirwin

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Public Health Economist at Alberta HealthMs. Kirwin is a public health economist with Alberta Health, supporting public health decision making though cost effectiveness analyses, mathematical modeling, and the analysis of administrative health data.

Education and Training

MA, Economics, University of Alberta BA Hon., International Development & Economics, McGill University

Research Interests and Expertise

Ms. Kirwin’s research interests are in cost effectiveness analysis, mathematical modeling, and econometrics. She is a member of the Canadian Chronic Disease Surveillance System Economic Committee, and the Canadian Immunization Research Network.

Dr. Scott Klarenbach

Dr. Scott Klarenbach

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Professor and Clinician Scientist, Department of Medicine, University of Alberta Dr. Scott Klarenbach is a nephrologist and Professor in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta. He holds the Kidney Health Research Chair, and is the Chair of the Alberta Expert Committee on Drug Evaluation and Therapeutics, Chair of the Canadian Society of Nephrology Clinical Practice Guideline Committee, President of the Canadian Organ Replacement Registry Board, and serves on the Canadian Task Force on Preventative Health Care.

Education and Training

He received his medical training at the University of Alberta, and completed his MSc in Health Economics at the University of York, United Kingdom.

Research Interests and Expertise

His research interests include health outcomes and health economics research; he has conducted numerous economic evaluations and health technology assessments for both chronic and acute conditions.

Mr. Ramesh Lamsal

Mr. Ramesh Lamsal

Current Position and Professional Functions

Ramesh Lamsal is a Research Associate at the School of Public Policy, University of Calgary.

Education and Training

He received his MSc. in Health Studies and Gerontology (concertation in health economics).

Research Interests and Expertise

His research interests include pediatric economic evaluation, measurement of health outcomes and spillover effects. He has worked on the economic evaluation of interventions for children with neurodevelopmental disorders and mental health interventions. In addition, he has expertise in quantitative analysis.

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Mr. Thomas Lange

Mr. Thomas Lange

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

Tom is currently pursuing a Master in Public Policy at The School of Public Policy, University of Calgary. He is currently employed by The School of Public Policy as a graduate research assistant in the health and social policy department.

Education and Training

Tom holds a BSc in Microbiology and Political Science from the University of British Columbia. Additionally, he has an Emergency Medical Responder certificate from the Justice Institute of British Columbia.

Research Interests and Expertise

Tom’s research as a GRA is in evaluating Quality-Adjusted Life-Year alternatives for use in health policymaking. His capstone research is focused in the area of health economic methodology in public policy.

Mr. Steve Long

Mr. Steve Long

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions:

Steve is a Senior Associate with Global Public Affairs and self-employed consultant. He works with the pharmaceutical industry to explain health policy, product listing decisions and product pricing strategies and with employer groups to support their understanding and design of health benefits.

Education and Training

Steve holds a Master of Business Administration from the University of Calgary, and a BSc (Pharm) from the University of Alberta. He has past experience as a Director of Pharmacy for the Calgary Health Region and Executive Director for drug programs within Alberta Health. He has previously sat on numerous provincial and pan-Canadian Committees to inform CADTH Common Drug Review and pan Canadian Oncology Drug Review processes and decisions.

Research Interests and Expertise

His interests are at the intersection of pharmaceutical and health system policy and public and private sector funding decisions.

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Ms. Whitney Longstaff

Ms. Whitney Longstaff

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions

Whitney is a Principal Consultant at Medlior Health Outcomes Research, where she leads the UK and Canadian HTA services.

Education and Training

As a Chancellor’s Scholar, Whitney obtained a BHSc (Hons.) from the Faculty of Medicine at University of Calgary. She went on to obtain an MSc (Merit) in International Health Policy from the London School of Economics & Political Science in the UK, where her dissertation focused on modelling infectious disease in economic evaluation.

Research Interests and Expertise

Whitney’s primary research interests are in the health technology assessment and economic evaluation. Whitney has worked in HTA and Market Access roles across the UK and Ireland, including as National Health Economics Lead for Daiichi Sankyo UK & Ireland, and as the HTA Team Leader for Pfizer UK’s Oncology portfolio. Prior to working in the pharmaceutical industry, Whitney worked as a Technical Lead in the Technology Appraisals team at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) in the UK.

Dr. Elena Lopatina

Dr. Elena Lopatina

Current Position and Professional Functions

Research Associate, PhD Student in Health Economics, in the Department of Community Health Sciences, Cumming School of Medicine, University of Calgary. Dr Lopatina is the President of the International Society For Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

She received her Doctor of Medicine, as well as her Masters of Science with a double-major in Innovative Project Management and Economic.

Academy of Labour and Social Relations from Volgograd State Medical University, Russia. She is currently a PhD student with the Cumming School of Medicine at the University of Calgary.

Research Interests and Expertise

Research interests include Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research, Health economics, and arthritis research.

Dr. Mingshan Lu

Dr. Mingshan Lu

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Professor, Department of Economics, University of Calgary Dr. Minshan Lu is a Professor at the Department of Economics, and an Adjunct Professor at Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary. She is also a fellow at the Institute of Health Economics in Alberta.

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Dr. Braden Manns

Dr. Braden Manns

Current Position and Professional Functions

Svare Professor in Health Economics, and Nephrologist, Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary Dr. Braden Manns is the Svare Professor in Health Economics, a Nephrologist at the University of Calgary in the Departments of Medicine and Community Health Sciences, and an Alberta Innovates – Health Solutions Health Scholar. Dr. Manns supervises graduate students at all levels of training. Dr. Manns is the Past-President of the Canadian Society of Nephrology and co-principal investigator of the Canadians Seeking Solutions and Innovations to Overcome Chronic Kidney Disease (www.cansolveckd.ca), a national CIHR funded patient-oriented research network in chronic disease. He is also the co-lead of an Alberta Innovates funded inter-disciplinary team grant investigating chronic disease (www.icdc.ca). He has experience in pharmaceutical priority setting, having served on provincial and national committees for drug evaluation, including a term as Chair of Canadian Expert Drug Advisory Committee from 2006-2008.

Education and Training

Dr. Manns has a medical degree from the University of Toronto, and specialty training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology from the University of Calgary. He also has a Master’s in Health Economics from York University.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Manns’ current research interests include examining the implications of patient-borne costs on care and outcomes in chronic disease, examining the cost effectiveness of strategies and health care policies for managing patients with chronic disease, and assessing the implications of different ways to pay physicians, among other projects. He has expertise in Applied Health Economics.

Dr. Deborah Marshall

Dr. Deborah Marshall

Current Position and Professional Functions

Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary; Canada Research Chair (Health Systems and Services Research) and Arthur J.E. Child Chair in Rheumatology Research, Member O’Brien Institute for Public Health and McCaig Bone and Joint Health Institute Deborah Marshall holds a Canada Research Chair, Health Services and Systems Research as a Professor at the University of Calgary and Arthur J.E. Child Chair of Rheumatology Outcomes Research in the McCaig Institute of Bone and Joint Health. She is the Director of Health Technology Assessment at the Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute, a Senior Scientist at Arthritis Research Canada, and a member of the O’Brien Institute of Public Health.

Education and Training

Dr. Marshall has experience in technology assessment agencies, academia and pharmaceutical and diagnostics industry research settings in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Her research program focuses on patient preferences and patient engagement research, cost-effectiveness analysis, and dynamic simulation modeling of health services delivery to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of health care services.

Dr. Marshall is an active member of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research (ISPOR) as the Past President of the Board of Directors and various Task Forces. She serves as a member Board of Directors for Health Technology Assessment International (HTAi), the co-chair of the Scientific Research Committee and Board of Directors of the Arthritis Alliance of Canada (AAC), and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Alberta PROMs & EQ-5D Research & Support Unit (APERSU).

Dr. Kerry McBrien

Dr. Kerry McBrien

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Assistant Professor, Departments of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary Dr. Kerry McBrien is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Family Medicine and Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

She completed an Alberta Innovates Clinical Research Fellowship in Health Economics with the Interdisciplinary Chronic Disease Collaboration. She received her MPH from Harvard University School of Public Health. She is an MD, with a residency in Family Medicine from the University of Toronto.

Research Interests and Expertise

Her research interests include health economics and health services research, with a focus on chronic disease management in primary care.

Dr. Christopher McCabe

Dr. Christopher McCabe

Current Position and Professional Functions

Executive Director and CEO, Institute of Health Economics,Full Professor, Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, University of AlbertaDr. Christopher McCabe is the Executive Director and CEO of the Institute of Health Economics; and remains on faculty in the Department of Emergency Medicine, at the University of Alberta.

Education and Training

He received a BA Hons. in Economics from Middlesex University, an MSc from Newcastle University and a PhD in Health Economics from the University of Sheffield.

Research Interests and Expertise

Professor Christopher McCabe is a health economist and Principal Investigator of the Genome Canada Precision Medicine Policy Network. His primary research interest is in the development of efficient research and development processes for biotherapies and devices in the context of value based reimbursement market access hurdles. He has published over 200 hundred peer reviewed papers, book chapters and monographs. He holds a Capital Health Endowed Research Chair at the University of Alberta, having previously held Chairs at the Universities of Leeds, Warwick and Sheffield. He continues to hold a Visiting Chair in Health Economics at the University of Leeds. He has acted as a consultant for public and private sector organizations in Europe, North America and Australasia; most notably with NICE in the United Kingdom, with whom he had various roles between 2003 and 2011.

Mr. Nathan McClure

Mr. Nathan McClure

Current Position and Professional Functions

PhD Student, School of Public Health, University of Alberta

Nathan McClure is currently pursuing a PhD at the School of Public Health, University of Alberta.

Education and Training

Mr. McClure earned an MPH in Applied Biostatistics at the University of Alberta, an MSc in Mathematical Biology at Queen’s University, and a BSc (with Distinction) in Biology at the University of British Columbia. Mr. McClure has developed foundational knowledge in public health through advanced courses in health-related quality of life, epidemiology, health technology assessment, and health economics. Mr. McClure has also worked for Alberta Health Services, the Public Health Agency of Canada, and the World Health Organization, through which he has gained valuable practical experience in health services.

Research Interests and Expertise

Mr. McClure’s research interests include health economics and outcomes research with particular interests in the measurement of health utility and the calculation of quality-adjusted life years.

Contact

Dr. Christine Michaels-Igbokwe

Dr. Christine Michaels-Igbokwe

Current Position and Professional Functions:

Dr. Christine Michaels-Igbokwe is a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Calgary in the Cumming School of Medicine, Department of Community Health Sciences.

Education and Training:

Dr. Michaels-Igbokwe completed her BA in Development Studies at the University of Calgary. She moved on to do a Masters in Development Economics at Dalhousie University and completed her PhD at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Research Interests and Expertise:

Dr. Michaels-Igbokwe’s research interests include economic evaluation and stated preferences for health care services and policy interventions. She has previously worked in topic areas including sexual health and HIV services, prevention of violence against women and childhood immunization. Currently, her work focuses on children’s health and diagnostics for children with rare genetic disorders.

Ms. Safoura Moeeni

Ms. Safoura Moeeni

Current Position and Professional Functions

Ms. Moeeni is a doctoral student, and graduate assistant-teacher, Department of Economics, University of Calgary.

Education and Training

She is a PhD Candidate in Economics at the University of Calgary, and has a MSc. in Economics from Sharif University of Technology in Iran.

Research Interests and Expertise

Areas of interest include applied microeconomics, studying labor markets and economics of the family. Particular interests include intra-household decisions, and the cost of economic sanctions on human development (health and investment in children's education).

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Ms. Carmel Montgomery

Ms. Carmel Montgomery

Current Position and Professional Functions

Carmel Montgomery is a PhD candidate in the Department of Critical Care Medicine, Faculty of Medicine & Dentistry, at the University of Alberta.

Education and Training

Carmel received her BSN from the University of Saskatchewan and completed a MN at the University of Alberta. She is a registered nurse with experience across a broad spectrum of patient care areas, from intensive care units to palliative home care, in addition to project management in quality and patient safety.

Research Interest and Expertise

Carmel’s research focuses on evaluating health outcomes for patients with frailty and critical illness. Currently she is focused on construction of an electronic frailty index to screen for frailty in older patients referred for cardiac surgery. She is also investigating the cost of preoperative frailty in this population, in partnership with the IHE, as part of her Canadian Frailty Network Interdisciplinary Fellowship award.

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Dr. Thanh Nguyen

Dr. Thanh Nguyen

Current Position and Professional Functions

Health Economist, Institute of Health EconomicsAdjunct Professor, School of Public Health, University of Alberta Dr. Nguyen is a Health Economist specializing in health economics, evaluation in public health, biostatistics and epidemiology.

Education and Training

He received training as a medical doctor at Hanoi Medical University in Vietnam and holds both a Master's and PhD in public health from the Umea International School of Public Health in Sweden.

Research Interests and Expertise

Thanh is an expert in economic evaluation of health service, technology, program, and policy. He has experienced teaching health economic evaluation for MPH, PhD, and MD students and working as a consultant for the World Health Organization, World Bank, and the Ministry of Health among other organizations. He has published many journal articles and co-authored several book chapters.

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Dr. Arto Ohinmaa

Dr. Arto Ohinmaa

Current Position and Professional Functions

Associate Professor, School of Public Health, U of ADr. Arto Ohinmaa is a Professor and Program Director of the Health Policy and Management program at the School of Public Health, University of Alberta, and a Research Associate at the Institute of Health Economics.

Education and Training

He received his MSc. in Economics and his PhD in Economics from the University of Oulu in Finland.

Research Interests and Expertise

His research interests include health economic analysis, health-related quality of life and PROMs measurements, assessment of telemedicine, health technology assessment, distribution of health and health care costs in the population, health care performance measurements, and economic models of preventive programs.

Ms. Himani Pandey

Ms. Himani Pandey

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

PhD Student and Graduate Research Assistant– Department of Economics, University of Alberta; Graduate Research Assistant – School of Public Health, University of Alberta; Lab Instructor – Introductory Econometrics, Department of Economics, University of Alberta

Education and Training

Currently pursuing PhD in Economics; Previous: M.Sc. Economics with specialization in Environment and Resources, TERI University, Delhi, India; B.A. (Hons) Economics, University of Delhi (Sri Ram College of Commerce), India

Research Interests and Expertise

Interested to pursue research in environment, resources and health related aspects of Economics. I believe that these areas share the common techniques of assessing implicit valuation as also other concepts of microeconomics which hold a particular importance to my research interests.

Skilled with the techniques of Advanced Econometrics and working with ‘big-data’, I am working in my thesis to make use of micro-level data for assessing the localized impacts of mining on individuals in India through various channels such as education, health and labor market movements.

I have also recently completed a report outlining and evaluating the linkages between the supply and demand side models of estimating the cost-effectiveness thresholds which was prepared for and presented to PMPRB, Canada.

Dr. Mike Paulden

Dr. Mike Paulden

Current Position and Professional Functions

Education and Training

He received a BA in Economics at the University of Cambridge, an MSc in Health Economics at the University of York, and a PhD from the University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

Mike Paulden, PhD, is an Assistant Professor at the School of Public Health, University of Alberta. His research interests are in health technology assessment, with a particular focus upon the integration of social values into the methods used for the economic evaluations of health care technologies.

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Ms. Shainur Premji

Ms. Shainur Premji

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

Senior Analyst, Alberta Health ServicesShainur Premji is currently a Senior Analyst within the Research and Innovation department, Population, Public and Indigenous Health portfolio of Alberta Health Services.

Education and Training

Shainur completed a joint Bachelor of Arts degree in International Relations and Economics Honours, and a Master of Science degree in Health Research Methods at the University of Calgary

Research Interests and Expertise

Shainur provides health economics support to various projects that have a population and public health lens. Currently, Shainur is completing a cost-effectiveness and cost-utility analysis of postpartum depression screening versus not screening in Alberta, examining the cost per additional case diagnosed and cost per quality-adjusted life year using data inputs from the All Our Babies Cohort and administrative data. This research will be used to inform a standardized population and public health strategy to screen for postpartum depression across Alberta.

In addition to her health economics contributions, Shainur has an extensive background in qualitative and quantitative health research methods and program evaluation, with more than ten years of applied experience. Previously, she has traveled to the Philippines to develop a framework to evaluate the organizational and policy impacts of a local electronic health information system developed and implemented at the grassroots level.

Dr. Amity Quinn

Dr. Amity Quinn

Current Position and Professional Functions

Dr. Quinn is a Postdoctoral Fellow in Health Economics in the Department of Community Health Sciences, University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Dr. Quinn received a PhD in Social Policy, specializing in health policy and health services research, from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. She received a BA in Community Health from Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Quinn’s research focuses on the design and impact of different provider payment, delivery, and management approaches in health care. She has also been involved in policy efforts to improve the uptake of screening and brief intervention for risky alcohol use in primary care and training efforts to advance the integration of behavioral health and medical care. Dr. Quinn has expertise in mixed methods approaches.

Ms. Hena Qureshi

Ms. Hena Qureshi

Current Position and Professional Functions

Hena is a health economist who graduated from the University of Calgary with an MSc in Health Economics funded by the SVARE Chair in Health Economics. She also holds a BSc in Biological Sciences and a BA in Economics . She is currently working at Innomar Strategies on the health economics and outcomes research consulting team. Her role is to help improve patient access to medications, and is involved in pharmaceutical drug submissions for CADTH, pCODR, and private payers.

Research Interests and Expertise

Her research interests are in pharmacoeconomic evaluations, budget impact analysis, and public and private reimbursement for pharmaceutical drugs. Ms. Qureshi is also passionate about public health work, and using evidence based research to inform and improve public health decision-making through a systematic and objective approach. She is actively using her knowledge-translational skills by partaking in healthcare activities/initiatives to actively engage with the intergenerational public.

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Dr. Ellen Rafferty

Dr. Ellen Rafferty

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

2018 NOAHE Health Economics Scholar (Fellowship) Award Recipient

Education and Training

Ellen Rafferty holds a Bachelor of Health Sciences from the University of Calgary and a Masters of Public Health from the University of Saskatchewan. She recently defended her PhD thesis, which is titled "Economic evaluations of vaccines in Canada: Exploring the epidemiologic and economic impact of chickenpox vaccine strategies in Canada using an agent-based model".

Research Interests and Expertise

Ellen’s field of research, and the focus of her NOAHE Fellowship project, is public health economics. The majority of her research to date has been dedicated to examining the economic impact of public health policies and problems, such as determining the cost-effectiveness of specific immunization programs, and estimating the national and global economic burden of a variety of public health issues.

Dr. Elissa Rennert-May

Dr. Elissa Rennert-May

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

Health Economics MSc Student, University of Calgary

Elissa Rennert-May is currently pursuing a MSc in Community Health Sciences, specializing in Health Economics, at the University of Calgary. She is also an Infectious Diseases Physician with the University of Calgary Department of Medicine.

Education and Training

Dr. Rennert-May completed her medical degree at the University of Toronto and did her specialty training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Rennert-May is interested in health economics and health policy with a particular focus on the cost-effectiveness of different Infection Prevention and Control and Antimicrobial Stewardship interventions and programs.

Mr. Heath Robson

Mr. Heath Robson

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions

Heath is presently a Clinic Manager with the Canadian Forces Health Services group based in Edmonton - overseeing a primary care clinic and network serving a unique population of approximately 6,000 military members in Alberta and the Northwest Territories.

Education and Training

He received his Master’s in Healthcare Administration from UBC, and has an undergraduate degree in Economics from the Royal Military College in Kingston Ontario.

Mr. Patrick Rosser

Mr. Patrick Rosser

Current Position and Professional Functions

Education and Training

Mr. Rosser holds a Masters in Public Policy focused on Healthcare and Social Policy and an Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics with a biological sciences minor.

Research Interests and Expertise

Patrick’s research interests and expertise are in healthcare efficiency, resource allocation, seniors’ healthcare issues, pharmacare and social policy; explicitly, addiction, food safety and other health related social policies. Specific focus is given to the behavioral aspects of decision making and how tax relief and subsidies affect healthcare decisions on individual and systemic bases.

Dr. Jeff Round

Dr. Jeff Round

Current Position and Professional Functions

Dr. Jeff Round is a Senior Health Economist at the Institute of Health Economics.

Education and Training

He obtained his Ph.D. in Health Economics from the University College London, University of London, and also holds a Master of Arts (M.A.) degree in Economics from the University of Manchester.

Research Interests and Expertise

Jeff specializes in decision analytic modelling and HTA, and his research encompasses both applied and methodological topics in health economics and economic evaluation. Recent applied research projects include evaluations of interventions in palliative and end of life care, elder care and dementia, interventions for the treatment of depression, and polypharmacy and medicines management. He has published work across these areas in leading clinical, health economics, and health services and policy journals. A recent paper on the societal costs of providing care at the end of life was recognized as the Research Paper of the Year for 2015 in the journal Palliative Medicine. In 2016, he published an edited book, Care at the End of Life: An Economic Perspective. His primary methodological interest is the assessment of the equitable distribution of health gains within economic evaluations and statistical methods for the estimation of health state utilities.

Dr. Allan Ryan

Dr. Allan Ryan

Health Economist

Current position and professional functions:

Director, Clinical Analytics at Alberta Health Services, Alberta Health Services Dr. Ryan is Director, Clinical Analytics in Analytics (DIMR) at Alberta Health Services. His team helps AHS’s Strategic Clinical Networks access and interpret healthcare data with a view to improving clinical and organizational performance. Dr. Ryan joined AHS in 2012 since that time has also held positions in Priorities and Performance and in the Finance group.

Education and Training:

He received his PhD from the Johnson Graduate School of Management at Cornell University and has a background teaching business, in university administration, information technology and finance.

Research Interests and Expertise:

Research interests include healthcare research, evidence-based decision making, and statistical and economic modeling.

Dr. Khal Salem

Dr. Khal Salem

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Internal Medicine SpecialistDr. Khal Salem is an Internal Medicine Specialist (private practice in Edmonton, Alberta). He served as the Welland hospital site chief of Internal Medicine and medical director of Cardiac Rehabilitation in the Niagara Health System, Ontario, Canada, and had held a position of Chair of Cardiac rehabilitation and heart failure oversees in the Arabian Gulf area.

Education and Training

He had his Internal Medicine training in the United states, and Cardiology/Echocardiography training at McMaster university. He has obtained both the FRCPC and ABIM designation, and holds a Master degree in Health Administration credentialing from the University of Regina, SK, and is currently enrolled in a Master of Health Economics (Cardiovascular diseases) at the world renowned London School of Economics (LSE).

Research Interests and Expertise

His research interest is in the field of Cost-effectiveness and Cost-Utility Economic evaluation methods.

Dr. Behnam Sharif

Dr. Behnam Sharif

Current Position and Professional Functions

Behnam Sharif is a Research Scientist and an Adjunct Assistant Professor at Community Health Sciences Department, Cumming School of Medicine at University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Dr. Sharif completed his PhD at School of Population and Public Health, University of British Columbia in 2014 and worked as a research fellow at Statistics Canada-Health Analysis Division, and Alberta Bone and Joint Health Institute.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Sharif’s areas of interest are at the interface of Health Services Research and Computer Simulation Modeling. He is broadly interested in development of data-driven computational tools to aid in health-policy decision making for chronic diseases.

Dr. Eldon Spackman

Dr. Eldon Spackman

Current Position and Professional Functions

Assistant Professor, Department of Community Health Sciences, University of CalgaryDr. Spackman is an assistant professor, in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Eldon holds a BA and MA in Economics from the University of Calgary and a PhD from the Pharmaceutical Outcomes Research and Policy Program at the University of Washington. He joins the University of Calgary from the Centre of Health Economics at the University of York in the UK.

Research Interests and Expertise

Eldon is a health economist with an interest in methods for sustainable health care. He is particularly interested in assessing the value and opportunity costs of health care technologies and interventions. His recent research is about how to take into account evidence uncertainty in decision making and understanding the health lost when diverting funding to new health investments.

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Mr. John Sproule

Mr. John Sproule

Current Position and Professional Functions

Senior Policy Director – Institute of Health Economics. John provides leadership for many of the IHE’s policy engagement programs and provides policy advice and consultation to government and health system partners on a number of provincial and national initiatives related to health policy and health services organization and design.

Education and Training

He received his BA in English/History, and his MPM (Masters of Public Management) from the University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

International health policy, stakeholder and community engagement in policy development, health system design, and strategic planning for health systems.

Contact

Mr. Duncan Steele

Mr. Duncan Steele

Current Position and Professional Functions

Duncan heads Alberta Health Services’ Organizational Ethics office. His role includes supporting the Executive Leadership Team in resource allocation and leading policy-level decision-making.

Education and Training

He received his MA in Applied Ethics from Utrecht University (focus on Public Health Ethics) and his Master of Health Administration from the University of British Columbia (Capstone: Physician governance structures and change management).

Dr. Glen Sumner

Dr. Glen Sumner

Current Position and Professional Functions

Dr. Sumner is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the University of Calgary, a staff Cardiac Electrophysiologist for the Libin Cardiovascular Institute at the Foothills Medical Centre, and co-chair of the Arrhythmia Working Group Strategic Clinical Network.

Education and Training

M.D.: Queen’s University at Kingston

Internal Medicine: Dartmouth College (USA)

Cardiology, Echocardiography, Electrophysiology: McMaster University

Health Economics, Management, and Cardiovascular Outcomes: London School of Economics and Political Science (London, UK)

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Sumner's research interests and expertise are cardiac device implant technology and innovation, as well as health care financing: physician and hospital payment models.

Dr. Andrew Sutton

Dr. Andrew Sutton

Current Position and Professional Functions

Dr. Andrew Sutton is a Senior Health Economist at the Institute of Health Economics.

Education and Training

Dr. Sutton received his PhD in Biological Sciences at the University of Warwick in the UK. This research focused on the mathematical modelling of infectious diseases.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Sutton has more than 15 years of experience as a health economist working predominantly in the area of the economic evaluation.

Previously, Dr. Sutton was an Associate Professor in Decision Analytic Modelling at the University of Leeds in the UK. Working mainly in the Test Evaluation Group within the Academic Unit of Health Economics, Dr. Sutton undertook a number of economic evaluations of several medical tests at various stages of development. These projects typically involved collaboration between the Diagnostic Evidence Co-operative, Leeds (now the Leeds In-vitro Diagnostics Co-operative) and commercial companies, and sought to encourage the early adoption of new interventions. In the UK he was a panel member on the National Institute of Health Research General Board with the responsibility for the assessment of applications for the NIHR Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Programme. Prior to working at the University of Leeds, Dr. Sutton was a Lecturer at the University of Birmingham.

Dr. Sutton has a research interest in the early economic evaluation of medical tests, and has conducted a number of studies in this area.

Mr. John Taplin

Mr. John Taplin

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

John Taplin is a graduate student specializing in Health Economics in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the University of Calgary and an Advanced Care Paramedic with Alberta Health Services Emergency Medical Services in Calgary. He is the recipient of the 2017 EMS Research Education Development Studentship bursary through the EMS Foundation.

Education and Training

John completed his BA in Economics at the University of Calgary and is currently pursuing a Master of Science in Community Health Sciences under the supervision of Dr. Fiona Clement. He has previously worked in EMS management for Siksika Nation and as a Policy Analyst with Alberta Health.

Research Interests and Expertise

John’s research interests include addressing health inequities, collaboration to improve Indigenous Health outcomes, and cost-effectiveness of new technologies and practices in Emergency Medical Services. John brings a front-line perspective and is passionate about evidence-informed health policy development.

Contact

jgtaplin@ucalgary.ca

Mr. Andrews Tawiah

Mr. Andrews Tawiah

Student/trainee

Current Position and Professional Functions

Andrews is a current Ph.D. student in the Faculty of Rehabilitation Medicine at the University of Alberta working under Dr. Linda Woodhouse. He is a physiotherapist trained in Ghana and a student member of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association.

Education and Training

Andrews completed his physiotherapy degree in Ghana (2010) and completed a master’s degree in Health and Rehabilitation at the University of Southampton (2016) in the UK. Andrews has undertaken courses in HTA from the School of Public Health (University of Alberta) and an internship program with the Alberta PROMs and EQ-5D Research and Support Unit (APERSU). With support from supervisors, mentors and colleagues, Andrews has undertaken research into the discriminative validity of the EQ-5D-5L and SF-12 in people with arthritis and conducted a mini HTA on the use of ReWalk (TM) within the province.

Ms. Omoyemi Timson

Ms. Omoyemi Timson

Health Economist

Current Position and Professional Functions

Senior Economist (Health), Alberta HealthMs. Timson is a Senior Economist, Health Economics and Funding Branch, Health Standards, Quality and Performance Division with Alberta Health. In this role, she specialises in the analysis of health expenditure and utilization over time and across jurisdictions, and provides information and evidence to support senior level decision making and programs and policies within the ministry.

Education and Training

She received a Bachelor of Economics and a Diploma in Business Administration from Eastern Mediterranean University, Cyprus and University of Jos, Nigeria respectively. In addition, she has Masters of Arts in Economics from Carleton University, Canada.

Research Interests and Expertise

Ms. Timson’s research interests include the drivers of health system costs, health care financing and economic incentives, and application of behavioral economics to health care. She also has an expertise in ensuring relatively complex information is presented in a simple and digestible way.

Master of Science, Policy Analysis and Management 2007Cornell University, New York, USAMaster of Public Administration 2004Cornell University, New York, USA

Bachelor of Arts, Economics 2000Keio University, Tokyo, Japan

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Ueyama's key area of interest is the empirical health economic analysis on the non-medical and medical determinants of health, including studies on health insurance, health systems, and health policy (non-medical) and health services evaluation (medical). Additional interests include healthcare access and health disparities in low and middle income countries as well as economics of health among vulnerable populations such as elderly and children.

Mr. Klemens Wallner

Mr. Klemens Wallner

Current Position and Professional Functions

Project Research Assistant, University of AlbertaProject Research Assistant for Dr. Christopher McCabe. He is also collaborating with researchers at the University of British Columbia to combine probabilistic models of stem cell processing with models of costs and outcomes of treatment to inform early stage R&D planning.

Education and Training

He received his applied training in health policy and economics from working for and with Prof. McCabe and his Bachelor of Social and Economic Sciences (Field: Political Economy) from University of Graz, Austria. There – and alongside taking Masters level courses – he got empirical research opportunities while working for Joanneum Research GmbH and Verkehr Plus GmbH.

Research Interests and Expertise

His primary research focus is the efficient design of research and development processes, e.g., for stem cell technologies, using beta cell transplantation in type 1 diabetes as the primary example. He recently published a working paper that addresses the problem of model calibration in the presence of competing risk bias. A tentative description of this method can be found on the Open Science Framework (doi 10.17605/OSF.IO/AJQCF).

Contact

Dr. Jian Wang

Dr. Jian Wang

Current Position and Professional Functions:

Education and Training:

PhD in Health Services and Policy Research, and MA in Economics from University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

Jian’s PhD thesis and her NOAHE Fellowship project are on mental health services and economics. Her research interests include economic evaluation of health services, technologies, programs and policies.

Research Interests and Expertise

Ms. Krystle Wittevrongel

Ms. Krystle Wittevrongel

Policy Leader

Current Position and Professional Functions

Krystle is currently a graduate student undertaking her MSc in Kinesiology at the University of Calgary and working as a Research Associate in the Health Policy division at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

Krystle recently completed her Masters in Public Policy at the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary in the fall of 2017, specializing in health policy. Following her MPP, Krystle worked as a Research Associate in the Social Policy and Health area of the School of Public Policy at the University of Calgary, working primarily in the Health Policy arena. Krystle’s current work primarily involves supporting a number of projects in the Neurodevelopmental Disabilities Research Program, conducting research and analysis of policies, programs and supports as they relate to persons with developmental disabilities using qualitative and/or quantitative methods of data collection. Prior to her MPP, Krystle earned a BSc in Biological Sciences and a BA in Development Studies from the University of Calgary in 2012. Krystle has also undergone extensive study and training in refugee and forced migration issues, including (but not limited to) a certification from York University’s Centre for Refugee Studies.

Research Interests and Expertise

Krystle is passionate about public health and the utilization of policy to better support vulnerable populations. A keen interest in concussion research and policy led Krystle to complete her MPP Capstone Project on the topic, undertaking an exploratory analysis of concussion policy in the Alberta education system. This has translated to further graduate study in the investigation of health outcomes following implementation of clinical pathways and procedures, specifically in the area of concussion, with a focus on healthcare utilization and cost.

Dr. Charles Yan

Dr. Charles Yan

Current Position and Professional Functions

Health Economist, Institute of Health EconomicsDr. Yan is a Health Economist at the Institute of Health Economics.

Education and Training

He received a DPhil in Economics from the University of York, UK.

Research Interests and Expertise

His research interest is in health economics with focuses on modeling analysis and statistically exploring health policy implications based on data from health care administrative records and clinical studies.

Dr. Mahmood Zarrabi

Current Position and Professional Functions

Education and Training

He received his MA in Economics from the University of Isfahan, and his PhD in Economics, specializing in Health Economics, from the University of Calgary.

Research Interests and Expertise

Dr. Zarrabi’s research interests include applications of economic theories in health research and health innovative technologies, value for money, equilibrium, efficiency, and sustainability of healthcare systems and whether personal choices are protected within the systems.

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Dr. Jennifer Zwicker

Dr. Jennifer Zwicker

Current Position and Professional Functions

Dr. Zwicker is the Director of Health Policy at the School of Public Policy and an Assistant Professor in the Faculty of Kinesiology, at the University of Calgary.

Education and Training

She received a Master of Public Policy from the University of Calgary, and a PhD in Physiology from the University of Alberta.

Research Interests and Expertise

Her research interests are in health policy with a focus on child health. She leads a research program that is focused on better understanding the impact of early diagnosis and early intervention for children with developmental disabilities. Dr. Zwicker is funded by the Network of Centers of Excellence called Kids Brain Health Network and the CIHR SPOR network called CHILD-BRIGHT. She works collaboratively with both Dr. Wendy Ungar and Dr. David Whitehurst to lead the health economics core for these networks.